Mark is absolutely right. I bought and watched The Buddy Holly Story on his recommendation and it was brilliant. The music and the strory - both great, and Gary Busey is awesome.



Also, what about Ken Russel's Lisztermania? Mad film!

No mention for I'm Not There?

Where is the Elvis biopic with Dr K in the lead role?

albioneye I'm Not There was mentioned wasn't it ? When Mark talked about Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.

Manic Street Preachers - the only modern band that demand a biopic.

I thought What's Love Got To Do With It was pretty good.

Some Kind Of Monster too (in a totally different way!)



Gina Bellman for Amy Winehouse?

i agree that the manic street preachers would make a good biopic, although only their early stages, as the most interesting thing about the band is richey edwards.



i think an amy winehouse biopic would be cool, and as for who would play her, i think some new talent would be best. that said, i think a britney spears biopic could potentially be amazing, and highlight how messed up the music industry is.



also, i'm willing to bet good money that, within the next year or two, a michael jackson biopic will at least be announced.

In the clip the idea of a Liberace biopic was mentioned, I'm sure there was one made(possibly for TV) in the late 70's/early 80's starring Andy Robinson the psychokiller from Dirty Harry !! Can anyone confirm ??

La Vie en Rose is surely one of the best biopics of recent years. Marion Cotillard is fabulous and the direction and editing are superb.



A biopic of Bowie - Space Oddity to Berlin would be interesting. Or The Joe Meek story has everything a good biopic needs - sex, drugs and death, oh and rock n roll.

They did.... the Joe Meek biopic... it's called Telstar... it jut came out.



I would love to see a Jesus & Mary Chain, it has a rags to riches story, it has drugs, sex, rock n' roll, disastrous last gig which became a riot.



a Clash one would be good too if they could the whole story including Clash Mark II but saying that there are tons of Clash docs.

Wow! That one passed me by (Telstar), and many others by all acounts. And Nick Moran directing! Was it any good?

Surely Helena Bonham Carter is the ideal actress to play Amy Winehouse?

That Janice character from friends IS Amy Winehouse, looks similar, sounds similar and is equally annoying.

What about a biopic of Jeff Buckley? He's a great artist and has a story, both with he and his father, which is very moving and interesting.

The obvious missing bipoic is that of Michael Jackson but maybe there is still enough money in his estate or among his relatives to sue the hell out of anybody that attempts it.

I saw Amadeus for the first time yesterday and thought that you could draw a comparison between the film and the way the works of the antagonist Antonio Salieri are portrayed in the film; having all the right notes and climaxes that the audience expect, yet missing the sections of pure ingenuity that rise the piece far above the levels of mediocrity.

The costumes, the settings and the music were all absolutely fantastic, however I just felt that the entire spectacle merely alludes to the grandiose nature of others, which is passed off to the audience as if it is the film that is the source of such wonder, rather than having any moments of ingenuity or inventive film-making that made the film a masterpiece in its own right.

Is there something that I am missing here?

I'd say what you are missing is the writing. Peter Shaffer Based the screenplay on his own play which itself won several awards including a Tony for Best Play. The film hauled in 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.



But you can't really consider this a biopic because the play on which it is based is ostensibly a work of fiction.

I'm curious about the absence of 24 Hour Party People from this discussion. It's not a regular rock biopic - unless it's of Tony Wilson - but weaves the whole thing together well, saying all that needs to be said about the Happy Mondays in a few scenes. I think it's worth including in the discussion as a way of coming at things differently.



As I type this it occurs to me that this might be the way to address the question of Oasis. A film just about them would be rather tedious as Mark pointed out, but a film about the Britpop battles and the whole cool Britannia New Labour dream of the early 90s could work well.

Re: Dr Kermode's assertion that all post-Tap rock-doc's exist solely to promote an uneven image of a band/artist that eschews journalistic integrity and honesty in favour of making said band/artist look like Golden Gods, I emplore you to check out Steven Cantor and Matthew Galkin's "loudQUIETloud". It's a film about (the) Pixies.



More specifically, it's a candid and honest account of the band in the midst of their reunion tour in 2004 that makes no effort to sweeten or distort the image of a band who, by their own admission, reformed for the money, who, when sat in a room together, would rather sit in deafening silence than communicate with one another and whose drummer (part time magician David Lovering) has started to develop a chemical addiction that leads to a bizarrely low-key on-stage breakdown. It's all very un-rock and roll and occasionally very unflattering but that's it's charm.



N.B. In a "Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon" link to "Rattle & Hum", Daniel Lanois recorded the score to "loudQUIETloud". Lanois (along with Brian Eno) also produced a number of U2 albums.

DiG! is a great modern music biopic. Manic Street Preachers? Please.

And DiG! I'd forgotten all about that one. Anton Newcombe doesn't appear to be of sound mind in that film.



@jnanagarbha: You might enjoy a documentary called "Live Forever". It covers a lot of the ground you mention.

Dear Mark,



Re: Music Biopics/Rockumentaries Culture Show 29 July 2009



I find Simon Mayo more and annoying with his crass, un-thought out and blurted out comments. Last night it was the only reason Gimme Shelter is highly rated is because someone was killed at Altamont. No, the axiomatic reason why this seminal movie is probably numbero uno is because it captures the Rolling Stones at their most exciting with numbers from the groundbreaking Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and forthcoming Sticky Fingers albums delivered with verve, drama and menace. The significance is also heightened because that unique late 1960s sound, so much an integral part of the Rolling Stones brand is captured unadulterated without the editing and overdubs which unfortunately are unwelcome feature in later movies of this genre along with CGI enhancements and the general Hollywood machismo relating to product finishing. Gimme Shelter is significantly live what you see and hear is what you get, genuine rock/rhythm & blues/blues/country product played and NOT acted out by what many observers have hailed the greatest rocknroll band in the world. As Bob Dylan only recently remarked in the pages of Mojo, they are still the best even better if Bill was back in the band. Quite right. What we have here is a celluloid document, diary of a band style rockumentary of the Rolling Stones during their late 1969 U.S tour starting at Madison Square Garden and culminating at the Altamont Speedway. Nothing is rehearsed or staged. The camera is the fly on the wall. The movie makers do not interview, they merely observe and record. The performances are impeccable with the added bonus of resolving the legal and commercial difficulties of staging Altamont with a San Fran lawyer, fascinating. This cool dude actually turned up to the show,6th December 1969! Gimme Shelter has been re-issued with additional material by the Rolling Stones. What would also have been most welcome would be more by the support acts, Ike & Tina Turner, The Flying Burrito Brothers, CSN and Jefferson Airplane.



This is a very difficult medium in which to convey good movie making without resorting to techno flash, controversy to make it sell and movie magic compensation for the limitations of the act. Few can measure up but in my view the following are worthy contenders:



Music Bioipics



Amadeus (Mozart)

Control (Joy Division)

Bird (Charlie Parker)

The Doors (Doors)

I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash)

The Music Lovers (Tchaikovsky)

The Great Rock N Roll Swindle (Sex Pistols)

24 Hour People (Factory Records)

Lady Sings the Blues (Billy Holiday) Great subject, poor vocal interpretation by Diana Ross.

Mahler (Gustav Mahler)

Lisztomania (Franz Liszt)

Immortal Beloved (Ludwig van Beethoven)



Rockumentaries



Hail, Hail Rock N Roll (Chuck Berry)

The Beatles Anthology (Beatles)

25x5: The Life & Times of (Rolling Stones)

Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones et al)

The Stones in the Park (Rolling Stones)

Rock & Roll Circus (Rolling Stones)

Stripped (Rolling Stones)

Dont Look Back (Dylan)

Live at Pompeii (Pink Floyd)

The Last Waltz (The Band et al)

Farewell Concert Royal Albert Hall 1968 (Cream)

Jimi Hendrix at Monterrey

Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock

The Concert for Bangladesh (George Harrison et al)

The Kids are Alright (The Who)

The Song Remains the Same (Led Zeppelin)

Westway to the World (The Clash)

LoudQuietLoud (The Pixies)

The Last Great Traffic Jam (Traffic)



Also full length concerts



Miles Davis & Friends (Miles Davis)

Elvis 68 Come Back Special (Elvis Presley)

Sinatra at the Royal Festival Hall (Frank Sinatra)

The Black and White Night (Roy Orbison)

Cream at the Royal Albert Hall 2005 (Cream)

London Hyde Park 1969 (Blind Faith)

London Coliseum 1969 (The Who)

Reunion Concert Cologne 1994 (Colosseum)

Unplugged Plus A Live Collection (Nirvana)

Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin)

Live at Santa Monica 72 (Traffic)

Kiss My Blood (Iggy Pop)

Weld (Neil Young & Crazy Horse)

Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young & Crazy Horse)

Live at Ronnie Scotts (Jeff Beck)



UniversalVision

Hempstead

I thought I'm Not There was the most pretentious piece of garbage...until I saw a production of 'His Dark Materials Pt. 1' at a theatre recently!

For the record. "Walk the line" in Brazil was titled "Johnny e June". It's surely about them both, equally.

I agree that a Manic biopic would be very good, but i disagree that it would have to focus on the early years. From a filmic point of view the story up to Richey's disappearence would make for a good ending, in that only after he left were they 'accepted' into the music world as a household name band - the bitter irony and all that. But the really interesting part of the tale is how the three remaining members came to terms with his disappearence - a far more tragic tale than Joy Division/New Order where they knew their band mate was dead, they really had no idea what happened to Richey - and why they chose to carry on.



Finally, the release of this year's album, using Richey's lyrics, in certain respects provides a closure on Richey's Manics career, and indeed an end to the unspoken Manics tale.